Queens commuters schlepped, took livery cabs and bummed rides from relatives as they scrambled to deal with a strike yesterday at two private bus companies.

“It sucks,” said Cindy Chan, an 18-year-old college student who learned of the strike only after she waited at a Q45 bus at a stop for 15 minutes. “I had a final today.”

Chan convinced her dad to drive her into Manhattan but noted that he will not be able to take her to her architecture classes at the New York Institute of Technology if the strike continues. Melanie Velasquez, an eighth-grader at Our Lady of Fatima School in Jackson Heights, walked about a mile to school from her East Elmhurst home because of the strike.

More than 50,000 commuters were left hamstrung by yesterday’s walkout of workers at Triboro Coach Corp. and Jamaica Buses Inc. – who unlike public transit employees are not barred by state law from striking.

About 750 unionized employees at those privately operated companies went on strike at 12:01 a.m. as part of the Transport Workers Union’s two-phase effort to force the MTA to cut a favorable labor contract deal.

Bus riders in Queens were unsympathetic to the strikers. Brunilda Ayala, commiserating with two strangers stuck along with her at a Jackson Heights transit hub shortly after midnight Sunday, said she had no sympathy for the union.

“How can you give a raise to a bus driver who would make three old ladies walk home in the cold?” asked Ayala, 57.

“They shouldn’t have done it just a few days before Christmas, when everybody needs to get around,” said Mabel Brock, 78, who waited in the cold for 10 minutes at a Q72 bus stop in East Elmhurst before she learned about the strike from a reporter.

“It’s going to affect me a lot,” said Brock, who had planned on taking that bus to Circuit City to buy something for her granddaughter. “I only have this as transportation . . . I guess I’ll have to take a taxi.”

To alleviate the strike’s effect, city officials allowed commuter vans to pick up passengers from bus stops for a maximum fare for travel within Queens of $5. Livery cabs were allowed to do the same for a $10 per-passenger fare.

“They’re like sharks who smell blood,” said Bobby Chen, a chef trying to get his home 25 blocks away in Corona, of the circling taxi and livery cabs.

“If I pay them $10 every night to go home, then there’s no money left for Christmas for my children.”

Lina Ho, a tourist from Toronto, was forced to take a livery cab to La Guardia Airport with her husband, Rayburn, when they found out there was no bus service from the 74th Street/Roosevelt Avenue station. While Rayburn was happy to learn the ride would only cost $10, Lina was not thrilled to share the cab with another passenger.